for'ard. There was a sheep in
the long-boat, and, as he was cruising about decks, he smelt it, and
grabbed it, and was suckin' its blood in a jiffy; so we managed to get a
slip-knot over him, and hauled taut on it from aloft. Then a young
fellow went down with a line, and wound it round and round him, till he
couldn't stir, and at last, with a heap of trouble, we got him stowed in
his cage again, sheep and all; for he never let go on it.'

"And what was done for the man at the wheel?'

"Well, sir, nothing; he was only doing his duty."

'That was too bad! Now tell us another--tell us some more about shows?'

'Shows, chickabiddy? I've not seen any of late. The last was the
What-Is-It.'

'Well, and what _was_ it?'

'That is more than I can tell you. The proprietor is constantly asking
the question, and has even gone to the expense of repeatedly
advertising. I shouldn't wonder if, by this time, he had gotten a
satisfactory response. I went and listened to the customary description.
The silence that ensued was broken by a miserable skeptic, whose
ill-regulated aspirations betrayed his insular prejudice, 'Vot is it?
arf hanimal, eh? t'other day, I stuck a pin into him, and ses he, '_Dam
yez!_' Vot is it, eh?'

'Thus did this wretch, by implication, endeavor to unsettle the opinions
of the audience, none too definite, perhaps, before.

'It is singular the distrust with which a thankless public has long come
to regard the efforts of one whose aim it has ever been to combine
instruction with amusement. Do you remember an itinerant expedition sent
forth, years ago, by the same grand purveyor? There was a Car of
Juggernaut, you may recollect, drawn by twenty little pigs of elephants.
That show I also attended, and was well repaid for going. Near the
entrance of the tent was a large cage, peopled with the gayest denizens
of tropic life, macaws, cockatoos, paroquets--what know I?--a feathered
iridescence, that sulked prehensile or perched paradisiacal in their
iron house. Two youths entered; one paused admiringly. 'Come along,
Jack,' remonstrated the other, hurrying him on by the arm, 'them darned
things is only painted.' He wasn't going to see his friend imposed upon
and his admiration extorted under false pretenses. Not if _he_ knew it!
Mr. B---- couldn't do _him!_

'Painted! Ay, Jonathan--and if Church or Kensett, look you, could only
get at those pigments! could find the oil-and-color men that filled that
order! ah m